By ensuring that machinery is functioning properly, maintenance workers have a direct impact on production line safety. As a company that’s committed to helping our customers achieve safety compliance and protect their employees, we decided to devote a blog post to some of the key things a maintenance team should know about safety.
When is the best time for downtime? For most, the answer is, “No time is a good time.” The real question becomes, how long can your aging DCS limp along before an upgrade is unavoidable?
The best gate safeguard or access control is worthless if unauthorised access to your machine is possible via the IT system. A holistic safety concept is required here, that takes both machinery safety and industrial security into account. Should any security gaps emerge, loss of quality and unplanned downtimes are two of the possible scenarios. So it’s all the more important to protect plant and machinery in such a way that only authorised personnel have access and manipulation of the control systems by attacks from outside is prevented.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know when the devices in your home are on their last legs, so you could fix or replace them before they break? Just imagine how much better life would be. No more air conditioner breakdowns in the dog days of summer. No more unusable dishwashers on busy weeknights. No more computer crashes before you can back up your family photos and personal files.
The frost is in the air, you can see your breath as you step out onto Michigan Avenue and see the glowing holiday decorations. Yet, surrounded by the allure of the fall colors in Chicago, one thing remains top of mind for professionals in the automation industry – Automation Fair.
How can society meet its increasing demand for energy while reducing carbon emissions? Swedish utility Mälarenergi has achieved something significant as it faces this challenge head-on with its waste-to-energy plant Unit 6, one of the biggest in the world.
3M Canada will be hosting a heat trace cables webinar, where you’ll learn about heat trace, heat trace applications (i.e.: pipe freeze protection, roof and gutter, and surface snow and ice melting), and the benefits of self-regulating heat trace cables—TTS™ Heat Trace Cables.
Without power, factory operations cannot continue. That’s why regular scheduled maintenance is important to ensure your electrical distribution system is in working order.
If not properly safeguarded, machine shop equipment is capable of seriously injuring an operator. Lathes, band saws and other simple machines can cut or even sever a finger or a limb. Due to the major potential for harm, it’s essential for manufacturers to comply with all mandated safety standards for the types of machines they employ.
Mining operators face a unique predicament: They want to reap the value of a connected mine – such as with greater data access, real-time analytics, and autonomous systems and services – but their operations are perhaps the hardest in the world to reliably connect.
What would a world without internal combustion engines look like? While this is not the current reality, changes in legislation and consumer habits are driving this global shift in a major way.
The Scenario: A high-speed printing company had partially completed an upgrade to their equipment. The printing machine used two alternating print heads to produce units at a rate of more than 11/s. Due to the nature of the product, speed, accuracy, and repeatability were extremely important. The process needed to be consistent as any defect would impact production further down the line.
As a plant manager, your list of responsibilities is never ending. Meet production demands and productivity targets. Manage raw material and energy costs while making profitability goals. Quickly adjust to accommodate marketing’s latest product innovation.
What would a world without internal combustion engines look like? While this is not the current reality, changes in legislation and consumer habits are driving this global shift in a major way.
ABB has been selected to supply a mill-wide distributed control system (DCS) and quality control system (QCS) for the Gulf Ply Paper Company’s new paper mill in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Based on ABB Ability System 800xA, the solution includes ABB’s Pulp & Paper Library, providing a flexible, consistent and comprehensive means of controlling and supervising manufacturing processes when the new mill becomes operational in October 2019.
Across a wide variety of systems and applications, three-phase induction motors are too important to fail. If and when failure does occur, it can result in unexpected downtime at a high cost to the facility. For this reason, it’s important to invest in a continuous monitoring system for these integral components of your facility.
This project is funded [in part] by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet est financé [en partie] par le gouvernement du Canada.
